REFERENCE CHECKING PROTOCOL
Care in Leaving Messages
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Confidentiality
o Remember that at this stage of the process, the names of the
candidates are not public
o If it is necessary to leave messages for candidates at their places of
employment,
 It is OK to say: “This is John Jones and I am trying to reach
Stan Smith” (do not divulge that the individual is an applicant
for the position)
o If it is necessary to leave messages for references at their places of
employment,
 It is OK to say: “This is John Jones and I am trying to reach
Ginny Green because her name was given as a reference”
(do not divulge the candidate’s name)
Call Candidates before Beginning Reference Calls
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Calling the candidates first will allow you to:
o Notify the candidate of where you are in the process
o Confirm the candidate’s continued interest (if it has been some time
since the application was submitted)
o Discuss the types of references with whom you want to talk (i.e.
references who have the professional relationship with the
candidate that will yield information helpful to the screening
process)
 e.g. a supervisor, “client”, colleague, etc.
 tailoring the references to the position will help to produce
meaningful input to the committee’s deliberations
 “passive” reference checking (i.e. simply calling a few
references named by the candidate without regard to their
professional relationship to the candidate) will probably
result in less helpful information
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Ask each candidate:
o “If we want to talk to someone who is not on your list of references,
is there anyone we may not talk to?”
 Adhere to candidate’s response
Divide Up the List of References
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Have more than one committee member involved in contacting references
for each candidate
o This approach:
 Allows for multiple committee members to receive
information beyond the written application materials
 Reduces the chances of committee members inadvertently
becoming advocates or adversaries for a particular
candidate
 Protects the integrity of the process from concerns that only
one committee member conducted all references for a
candidate and reported the information to the committee in a
biased manner
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Provide reference check assignments on a chart with following headings:
o Name of candidate, references to be called, member assigned to
make call for each reference, candidate’s response to questions
above re calling off the list
o Provide each committee member with entire chart so all know their
assignments as well assignments to others
o Develop mechanism within the committee to coordinate calls in
instances where calls are made to individuals off the list
Call the References
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Confirm that reference has enough time to go through a set of questions
with you
o Ideally, the reference should be completed in one call to provide for
continuity of the discussion
o Provide some information about the university, the position, your
department, etc. so that the reference has a context in which to
respond
o Restrictions of references
 Be advised that many employers are themselves being
advised not to respond to requests for references except for
information regarding the person’s employment dates, salary
history, and promotion record. Do not assume that if you
receive this response it is because the applicant had
problems with this employer.
 If a reference indicates that there is no organizational
restriction but still does not want to provide information
without providing a reason, call Human Resources to
discuss how to proceed
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All reference questions must be job-related
o If you cannot ask a question of a candidate in an interview, do not
ask a reference that question (see Appendix 10, Interview
Questions)
o If a reference provides information that appears to be personal in
nature but also appears that it could impact the ability of the
candidate to perform his/her duties, call Human Resources prior to
sharing the information with the other members of the committee.
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Information from references should relate their first-hand knowledge of
candidates
o If a reference indicates that they have no knowledge of the
candidate’s abilities or provides second/third-hand information, you
may want to ask the reference if he/she would like to recommend
someone more appropriate for you to contact (see “Call
Candidates” above about calling off the list)
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Use standard set of questions as basis of conversation with references
o You have developed a standard set of questions to ask all
references in order to ensure that you are collecting common
information about the candidates. This will provide with you a basis
of comparison.
o In addition, to the standard set of questions, you can and should
ask follow-up questions to ensure that you understood what the
reference meant and that you have received a complete response
(see section X.B of Guidelines for fuller discussion of this issue)
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Ask all of the questions that are part of the standard set.
o Sometimes references provide information that relates to a
subsequent question on your list. Don’t assume that you have
received a full response until you ask the question. Once the
reference has actually heard the question, he/she may think of
additional information.
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Similar number of calls per candidate.
o While it may be ideal to reach exactly the same number of
references for each candidate, you are not required to do so.
However, please do ensure that a similar number of calls is made
for each candidate. Avoid the appearance of a committee “agenda”
for a candidate that may result if a disproportionate number of calls
is made.